'I have no idea about such a medal. Never got one,' says Surya Shekhar Ganguly, the national chess champion between 2003 and 2008.
India's Mayank Chakraborty and Pratitee Bordoloi secured gold medals in the Open and Girls categories, respectively, at the Asian Junior Classical Chess Championship, leading the host nation to a memorable double victory and a total of four medals.
The Indian Under-11 girls' chess team, featuring Varenya Lakshmi Vaka, Aligiri Amrutha Hemal, and Maya Siddharth Narula, secured a bronze medal at the ASEAN Chess Championship in Singapore, finishing with 14.5 points.
Indian chess players Vignesh Vermula and Saranya Devi secured gold medals in the Open and Girls blitz sections respectively at the Asian Junior Chess Championship, marking a strong start for the nation. Vermula, a 23rd seed, won on tie-breaks, while Saranya, seeded ninth, displayed tactical precision to claim her title.
While GM Praggnanandhaa was an integral part of the men's team, his elder sister Vaishali also played a key role in the women's title triumph.
'Being the defending champions certainly gives us confidence, but every Olympiad is a new event and starts from scratch.'
Indian chess teams, both Open and Women's, face a significant challenge to defend their Chess Olympiad titles in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, after crucial losses and a historical 'winner's curse' where no Open section champion has successfully defended their title in the last five editions.
World champion D Gukesh's live rating has slipped below 2700 after the first two rounds of the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The Indian men's team, defending champions, had an average start with two unconvincing wins, while the Indian women's team performed better against weaker opposition. Gukesh's rating drop comes ahead of his world title challenge against Javokhir Sindarov in November.
If winning the National Championship does not help a player make the national team, what exactly is the value of becoming India's national champion?
The 20th Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, running from September 19 to October 4, will feature approximately 17,000 athletes from 45 countries competing in 469 medal events across 43 sports. Japan hosts for the third time, introducing new sports like mixed martial arts and virtual taekwondo, while also serving as a qualifier for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
India asserted its supremacy in chess by winning three gold medals in the rapid mixed team event and rapid individual events at the second Asian Indoor Games in Macau on Saturday.
The team drew with Kazakhstan in the final round to log 22.5 points in the nine-round Swiss league and emerge runaway winners.
As India's remarkable chess revolution gathers momentum, teenagers Rishabh Kumar and Adhiraj Mitra are ensuring that the country's future on the 64 squares remains brighter than ever.
From supporting young talents financially to earning global recognition, Indian chess is making its presence felt like never before.
Chennai's Velammal Vidyalaya, the alma mater of the youngest reigning World champion D Gukesh and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, won the gold medal at the World Schools Team Chess Championship in Virginia, United States.
Seventeen Indian sportspersons, including World Cup winning chess player Divya Deshmukh, decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, and shuttler Gayatri Gopichand, have been named for the prestigious Arjuna Award for 2025.
At just 11 years old, Bodhana Sivanandan has become Great Britain's No 1 Women's Chess player dethroning four-time British Women's Champion Lan Yao.
The Sports Ministry is set to commence the nomination process for the National Sports Awards next month, following a delayed announcement of the 2025 awards. The delay was due to a re-evaluation process aimed at preserving the integrity of the honours, which resulted in no Khel Ratna awardee for 2025 and fewer Arjuna awardees than recommended. The article also details the criteria for these prestigious awards and highlights some of the notable Arjuna awardees for 2025.
The 19-year-old Indian Grandmaster earned India its first gold at the Asian Games, winning the women's rapid tournament.
Indian Grandmaster R R Laxman walked away with the gold medal while Russia's Pavel Maletin won the overall title in the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship that concluded in Delhi on Tuesday.
The 14-year-old remained unbeaten in the tournament and won the title with eight points out of a possible nine.
Indian chess prodigy D Gukesh sealed a remarkable Chess Olympiad campaign with a decisive victory over GM Vladimir Fedoseev on Sunday in Hungary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lauded India's young chess players for their historic achievement at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, where both the men's and women's teams clinched their maiden gold medals.
India became only the third country to win both the men's and women's gold medals at the same Chess Olympiad.
During the felicitation ceremony honoring the gold-medal winning teams, she heard Hanvika's voice calling out from the audience. Harika stepped off the stage, hugged her daughter, and carried her to the back of the hall.
R. Vaishali, the newly-crowned Candidates champion, exemplifies quiet intensity and strong values, nurtured by a supportive family, as she prepares for the World Championship showdown against Ju Wenjun.
The FIDE World Cup for chess will be held between October 30 and November 27, 2025.
The Indian women's chess team etched their names in history by securing their maiden Chess Olympiad title, defeating Azerbaijan in a decisive 3.5-0.5 victory in Budapest.
Queen of Chess is a moving and powerful sports documentary about the highest-rated woman player in the history of chess. 'For me, it is a deeply personal reminder of where we came from, and what it took to get there,' notes Susan Polgar as she reviews her sister Judit Polgar's Netflix documentary, Queen Of Chess.
After winning the double gold medals at the Chess Olympiad, Telangana Chief Minister, Revanth Reddy, on Friday announced a cash reward of Rs. 25 lakhs for each Indian chess grandmaster, Arjun Erigaisi and Harika Dronavalli.
Harmanpreet Singh, Smriti Mandhana, Divya Deshmukh among five Indian stars nominated for BBC awards
With Georgia likely to post a victory against overnight leader Kazakhstan, it seemed that the Indian eves were likely to regain the top position and become the firm favourites for the gold medal again.
Woman Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni and Grandmaster S P Sethuraman made history, winning the gold medal in the Asian Continental Women's and Open chess championship that concluded in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
Three of the four Indian Open team players are in line for gold and silver medals for the individual performance.
India made history as both its men's and women's teams clinched their first-ever gold medals at the 45th Chess Olympiad. The men's team defeated Slovenia and the women's counterparts overcame Azerbaijan in the final round.
'The Indian Open team was extremely well prepared and motivated to win the gold medal.' 'With two players in the world top 10 club, and four players with over 2,700 ELO points (GMs Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, all below 20) and Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna, it was a solid team.'
'It will bring the next wave of awareness and pursuit of excellence from people who want to take chess as a game or a competitive sport or even as a career.'
The image of a smiling D Gukesh standing with outstretched hands will forever be embossed in the memory of a nation of billions.
Teen prodigy Divya Deshmukh stunned seasoned grandmaster Koneru Humpy in a tense tiebreak to win the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, rewriting Indian chess history at just 19.
The All India Chess Federation announced a whopping Rs 3.2 crore in rewards for the historic 45th Olympiad-winning Indian teams during a felicitation ceremony in New Delhi on Wednesday.
